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Don’t know about the O’s moving Mountcastle either.
What I see the O’s trying to do is packaging a few decent prospects – but not their best – along with O’Hearn for a veteran starting pitcher. A few things:
The pitcher doesn’t have to be a star, he can be an innings eater. Not unlike what Kyle Gibson did for them in 2023 but with enough in the tank along with contract control to be a mid-level starter for them through 2025. A veteran pitcher coming from a poor team will find it easy to pitch and win in front of that strong O’s D, to say nothing of the run support. The O’s don’t need to go after a top-tier pitcher. The most important thing is that they need someone that’s consistent and appears to be healthy enough to get through a year-and-a-third for them.
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They can afford to trade O’Hearn as they already have LH bats in Cowser and Kjerstad that can play the corner OF (Cowser can also play CF). Add in that Elias recently said Holliday – another LF bat – will be up for the stretch run, so O’Hearn’s bat is not really needed. If they want an LH bat to play 1B and sit Mountcastle for a game, Santander can be moved in from RF. (O’s plan ahead – Santander has played 1B for them.)
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Two obvious prospects that can be moved as they appear to be blocked are Sowers and Norby. Decent, quality young players to build with as well as get some production in 2024.
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Now, a team such as the Mariners would be perfect. They get a young 2B for the stretch run, and a solid-run producing bat that can DH, play 1B or RF. Sowers they might be able to use or might move on. But surely they don’t give up one of their top 3 starting pitchers for a package like that, so it may be that a 3rd team would need to be involved.
I don’t believe the Mariners are interested in trading any of their current rotation for second tier position players. Perhaps Emerson Hancock? (Our #6 starter)
Gomber
The Orioles have to also consider 2025 and beyond. Burnes will be a free agent. Bradish, Means, and Wells will not be available at least the first half of the season. At some point, they are going to have to trade from their prospect stockpile to get starting pitching.
Mark – There’s been plenty of reports out of NY that if the Yanks don’t go deep into the postseason, Boone will be replaced by Cora. I can’t think of any other top contender that could replace their manager with Cora and pay him the record-setting contract he will be seeking.
As for Varitek, he already interviewed for the Giants managerial position last offseason. He wants to be a manager, and he’s ready for it. I really think the next Red Sox manager will be either Tek or Ross.
I don’t think there’s a possibility that the Tigers don’t cash in on Flaherty. I think they have the depth to make a Flaherty departure manageable. It’s very difficult to see them trusting this team that had 3 out of 4 bad months this season, to advance far enough into the playoffs to justify not cashing in that extremely valuable lottery ticket that is Jack Flaherty.
To kinda piggyback off of Samuel’s post above, I think the O’s buy Flaherty for this year’s run. There are numerous options, but this makes sense to me.
Some say O-brass doesn’t wish to relive part 2 because of bad optics.
Gwynning;
I can’t see the O’s giving up 2-3 top-tier prospects for a 2 month rental. They just don’t think that way. Plus they had Flaherty last year and that didn’t work out well.
It’s fun to talk about this, and surely the O’s are the one buyer that people are talking about. But with so many buyers out there and so few sellers, the price for all pitching is going up, and I’m not sure the O’s are desperate enough to get suckered into anything.
As noted above, what the O’s have going for them is not just that they score lots of runs, but that they are an extremely well-trained defensive team. They don’t have one clunker on D that they’re carrying because they need their bat. All their defenders are quality, and at least a half-dozen are gold glove types.
Elias and Mejdal came from the Astros. If we look at what that team did as they made their first championship push, they didn’t bring in starting pitchers at the top of their games that they gave up numerous top prospects for, but rather they brought in underperforming veteran pitchers that their coaching staff could make some minor changes to and stuck them out in front of a stellar defense. The cost in prospects was reasonable.
I could be wrong and perhaps they’ll go after a big name. But the mentality of many posters here (not you) is that they could put together a “haul” for a guy like Garrett Crochet of the White Sox that’s pitched 180 innings in his entire 5 year ML career – which includes one year he sat out injured. The O’s invested lots of time, money, and organizational personnel to acquire and develop quality young players. They’re a small market team that wants to be sustainable contenders for years (as the Astros were…..and are). They only own a young players ML rights for 6 years. They aren’t going to undermine that objective by giving up multiple top quality youngsters to bring in a pitcher in 2024 because “Flags fly forever”. Pitchers are dropping like flies with major injuries (the O’s have 2 of their top starters out plus their closer that was arguably the best in MLB in 2023) I believe the O’s will hedge some at this trade deadline.
Pretty spot on gentlemen, it would be a major suckwind to pay for Flash again and have him fizzle out. Good assessments all around, and the next week and a half should be exciting for us to watch the Stove heat up! The O’s have the nickels to spend at the Penny Arcade, we’ll see what happens (if anything) soon. Cheers all
I get the impression Samuel might be an Orioles fan.
Who isn’t nowadays? Haha, I’ve been an Oriole fan since the mid-90s; they’re my AL team (even though my family leans to the Angels!)
Don’t tell anyone, but I’m also a closet Bucs fan (pretty loyal to the team that drafted me! Haha) but at the end of the day I’ll always be a Padre at heart. Cheers Iggy, best to you and your Mariners too brah!
Samuel is and has been a front-runner for 20 years. Depends on which team is hot for 2-3 years. Just watch him for a while and you’ll see.
Samuel’s not a front runner. He was talking about the Orioles when they were awful. He did the same with Cleveland. He gravitates towards teams that, in his opinion, are well run. Cool.
I’ve been reading his stuff for a long time. He’s Exhibit A for front-runners, going all the way back to when online newspapers had comment areas. You don’t know him as well as I do. He’s actually quite pathetic.
The Trout to Pittsburgh comment and reply was my favourite ever MLBTR moment.
OK, so who won the draft of 2014?